MAP27: Rocket Zone II (Valiant)

MAP27: Rocket Zone II is the twenty-seventh map of Valiant. It was designed by Paul DeBruyne (skillsaw) and uses a MIDI rendition of the music track "Epyon" from . The par time is 15:00.

Essentials
Take the super shotgun in front of you (and a shotgun on the starting pad), then follow a trail of health bonuses south and east; the bonuses lead to a super chaingun and armor if you need them. Follow the gray path east and north and kill some zombiemen and shotgun guys ahead, then continue walking north and west around the large building on your left until you see some steps flanked by tech pillars. Go up the steps and follow the tunnel past some imps and zombies until you go round a corner, then head up the steps on your left to confront an arch-vile (and two arachnorbs on Ultra-Violence and Nightmare skill levels) guarding a supercharge and a pair of switches. The west switch requires the yellow key, but the east switch will raise a bridge nearby.

Go back down the steps then proceed east across the bridge you just raised - the wall ahead will lower as you approach and reveal one or more suicide bombers. Step through into a large room containing a pit of damaging black liquid and fight your way anti-clockwise around the room until you reach the north-west corner, where an arachnotron guards a button; pressing the button will open several closets with various monsters, including two pain elementals to the east. Head back round to the south-west corner, where closets containing chaingunners and a bomber have opened, and flip the switch inside the east closet; this will open a compartment on the north side containing an arch-vile. Slay the arch-vile and enter the blue teleporter it was guarding to get back outside - you will see the yellow keycard in front of you, but do not go straight for it as you are surrounded by one or more cybruisers, along with two arachnorbs (or arachnotrons on Hurt Me Plenty (HMP) or higher) that teleport to the platforms ahead.

With the yellow key, open the door on the west side to reveal another cybruiser, destroy it then flip the lever on the north wall to lower the floor and reveal two imps. Open the door at the bottom to return to ground level, then go back to where you fought the first arch-vile and flip the yellow key switch to lower a large wall to the west. Head down the steps behind this wall and collect all the items at the bottom, including a super chaingun and rocket launcher, then proceed north into an area with lots of corpses. The wall behind you will rise to trap you, and a quantity of imps and revenants will teleport in followed by zombies and super demons; kill them while you wait for the walls to lower again and reveal some mancubi behind you, along with more imps and arachnotrons ahead. Head north and west around a rocket silo to some steps and climb them, passing some imps, until you reach the top and discover some health bonuses. Follow the trail of bonuses and run off the edge of the cliff to land on top of the rocket below, collecting the red key.

Jump down to ground level and head east to a pit with three more rockets; avoid grabbing the megasphere until you need it, as when you take the nearby blue keycard you will be ambushed by two or three arch-viles along with imps that teleport to the ledges overhead. Wait for two lifts on the east side of the pit to rise, activate them to get to the overhead ledge then go round to its north-west corner to find another lift that leads up to a chamber with a plasma gun. Take the weapon and kill a waiting cybruiser and imp, then go outside and head west (killing any remaining arachnotrons) through several doorways - as you pass through the last doorway the floor will lower and reveal a cybruiser (plus an arch-vile on HMP or higher) to your right, along with imps, demons and mancubi behind you. Push past the cybruiser to a red teleporter that will put you above the blue key area.

Follow the path south between the crates until you hear several closets open - arm yourself as these contain cybruisers, pyro knights, imps demons and super mancubi. Enter the south closet to find a skull switch that requires all three keys to activate; kill the cybruiser defending it then press the switch to open a door behind you that leads to the exit teleporter.

Other points of interest
As the level starts, drop into the nearby black liquid and head north to a trail of rockets which you can follow past some imps and chaingunners to find a rocket launcher. Taking it will open several monster closets in your vicinity.

Secrets

 * 1) Taking the rocket launcher behind the bars at the starting point will open a compartment behind you with demons and spectres. Look at the computer terminals in this compartment; one of them is green instead of blue, so use this terminal to lower the supercharge on the pillar nearby. (sector 138)
 * 2) From the ledge where you jump to the red key, jump south instead, to a ledge with a plasma gun and a berserk pack. (sector 2166)
 * 3) From secret #2, enter the nearby black waterfall to find a megasphere. (sector 918)
 * 4) From secret #3, press the wall behind the megasphere to find lots of supplies and a teleporter to the final countdown. (sector 1520) This area pits you against increasingly intense waves of monsters while numbers on the walls count down to zero - once the countdown ends, the inner doors will open to reveal many cybruisers guarding a rocket with a megasphere on top of it. Collect this megasphere to return to the main map.

Current records
The records for the map at the Doom Speed Demo Archive are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on April 16, 2023.

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level:

Trivia

 * For source ports that support it, a "music changer" thing is used to change the music to "" by while inside the final countdown arena. The music is changed back to normal on returning to the main map.